


The Honor Is Mine

by LumaBoop



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Armor Kink, Character Study, Fluff, Healer!Ardyn, M/M, Outdoor Sex, Rutting, SUPER pre game, gauntlet play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 13:09:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11380839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumaBoop/pseuds/LumaBoop
Summary: Izdubar would always be there for his prince, in any way he could.





	The Honor Is Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I've really wanted to write since I have embraced the headcanon that Gilgamesh could have been Ardyn's Shield since Ignis hypothesized that Gilgamesh was possibly 2,000 years old. Coupling that with Gilgamesh's ties to the Shields of Lucis, and I'm sold.
> 
> Gilgamesh ==> Izdubar ==> 28 years old  
> Ardyn ==> 23 years old

Traveling with Eos' Healer was often a trial beyond what he was trained for.

 

It wasn't the grueling trek, as his physical stamina was polished to something close to meta human. It wasn't the adaptation needed for Eos' dynamic weather. No, it wasn't even dealing with Lipeous, the black chocobo that served as transport and storage of their belongings. No, the true test of Izdubar's endurance was dealing with one Ardyn Lucis Caelum.

 

One Ardyn _blessed_ Caelum who was currently strumming on a lute that had been gifted to him from the past village. He was purposefully playing out of tune, which was the best way to cause Lipeous to start chirping along in equally poor time. And the only reason any of this was occurring was due to the Prince's boredom. It was futile to ask him to cease, and getting visibly upset about it would only grant Ardyn satisfaction. And while a satisfied royal was a more tolerable royal, Izdubar was trained to protect Ardyn, not entertain him.

 

Much to Ardyn's constant disappointment.

 

The strumming got louder, as did the bird's chortling. Iz adjusted his cowl over his head, thankful he chose to cloak himself today against the intense sun. The forest ahead would provide distractingly wonderful shade, and he could discard the cloak in favor of his usual state of dress--- half dressed.

 

A shield was strongest when wearing as little as possible, so Iz preferred to only be clothed in armor from the waist down, lower arms covered in clawed gauntlets. Otherwise, his upper body was bare to the world, all trained muscle under pale skin to use in service to the Caelums.

 

"K-kk-weh! " Lipeous declared and started to trot in place instead of move forward. The tautness of the rein Iz was holding caused him to jerk, his hood flipping off his head. That, it seemed, was the bend in his patience. He snapped his head around, reddish brown eyes glaring straight at the two rabble-rousers.

 

" _Must_ you, Ardyn, act so much like a babe still clinging to your mother's leg?"

 

"Must you, dear Izzy, act like what an Anak would squat out?" laughed the young man, eyes sparkling at his chocobo's antics and strummed even louder, more rapidly, achieving his goal of breaking Izdubar from his focused calm. The excitable tune caused Lipeous to flutter his wings while he was in that dancing-like trot, looking very much like a chick in play mood.

 

Only it wasn't a chick. It was large, and much more powerful. Izdubar took a step back, least a wing or neck sway right into his face. Ardyn only laughed, petting the beast as if it were acting within its training.

 

It was not.

 

"Calm it, and yourself, Highness." Iz exhaled, tucking his white-haired head back underneath his hood.

 

Ardyn gave the chocobo a few tugs by the reins and secured his lute into a nook created by their luggage. The large bird calmed down, chirping in regained discipline. Yet, somehow, it still has a mischievous gleam in its eyes while giving Izdubar a look. The man grumbled.

 

"Better. I understand your restlessness, Ardyn, but if you can contain yourself a moment longer, we will set camp and you may wander to your heart's content."

 

Because that was really the best way to deal with Ardyn when he became like this. This jittery self of anxious energy often hid under the guise of annoying playfulness. Like a child smiling to keep from crying. It was a very practiced and effective way Ardyn dealt with the pressures of his path as Eos' Healer. A pressure that bore into the skull harder some days than most.

 

He was his shield, and he took an oath to protect Ardyn from harm, but in matters of his emotions, and his lot in life, Izdubar did not feel it his place to coddle or smother him. In this, Ardyn needed to breathe, and only when the Prince called upon him to act would he attempt emotional support.

 

Today was one of those days, and after finding the Haven that was on the map and establishing themselves, Izdubar watched as Ardyn went off with Lipeous. He held no fear for the young man's safety, as he was much more powerful than he asserted, and the black chocobo was the strongest of all breeds, second only to the fabled golden chocobo. The prince was under good feathered care, and they both knew to be back before dusk lest daemons threatened their lives.

 

It was after the sun threw reds and pinks across the sky, making the forest skyline turn into nothing but pointy silhouettes, did Iz hear Ardyn's return. He was leaning against a tall, wide tree, cloak discarded and his gauntlets in his lap, newly cleaned and polished, when he heard the signs. First, the ghostly echoes of that blasted lute, then the thick, clawed steps of Lipeous' talons against the ground.

 

This was followed with the flutter of feathers as the chocobo flopped down near the strong fire. The lute strumming came closer, then, the weight of one young man who's mind was no longer guarded with mirth pressed against him. Like the dark shadows slowly encroaching, Ardyn often opened up during these hours of twilight and into the night. It was as if the night kept him safe from the world which expected him to be only one way.

 

Izdubar looked down at Ardyn curled against his side and scoffed in seeing him engulfed in his cloak, hood pulled over his head with only a bit of his unique auburn hair peeking out along with his nose wrinkled in confusion, and lips pulled down in contemplation.

 

"He was crying…"

 

Izdubar did not speak, allowing the young man to sort out his thoughts after spending the day lining them up neat and tidy.

 

"He cried after I healed him. Spoke of me as if I'd pulled down a star and showed it to him. Awed and mystified," Ardyn rasped, then exhaled, pulling the cloak tighter around his body, his forehead pressing into Izdubar's arm, "and horrified…"

 

The shield continued to keep silent, and still, even as Ardyn nuzzled into him through his cloak, his mind was craving release and using textile stimulus to try and grant it that distraction. To help the words he needed to speak climb out from the lock-and-key tomb of his head.

 

"He gave me this… _instrument_ ," Ardyn spat, "Not because he was thankful. Or even because he worshiped me. He gave it as a peace offering. As if I was some affinity capable of both malice and benevolence in need of appeasement to continue being selfless." Ardyn clicked his teeth and kicked the, now offensive, lute away and into a thicket of grass.

 

The cry of the instrument's strings startled the half asleep Lipeous, his neck rising up to stare at the item, then the humans. Brushing it off as nothing, it chortled back into its sleep circle.

 

"I… am a human being. I am not an astral. I am not divine. I am simply doing what I can."

 

The man sneezed suddenly, and _that_ was what caught Izdubar off guard.

 

He turned his torso, one arm curling along Ardyn's lower back and the other raising up to gently push the hood off Ardyn's head. There he saw a face full of disdain, fatigue, and a small amount of warmth, probably brought forth from the intimate snuggling from before.

 

Ardyn could be emotionally vulnerable all he wished, but if he fell ill, and they did not have the necessary curatives, Ardyn might be too weak to heal himself, and they would be too far from the Capitol to get the Prince to proper care.

 

"Are you well?"

 

Ardyn's nose wrinkled harder, almost snarling, and batted the man's hand away from his face, a complete change from his previous touch-starved self. Too much true skin to skin contact, nothing to guard the young man from the harshness of the world's realities, including the warm, supportive touch of his shield's attention.

 

"Cease that maternal fussing, Izzy! I sneezed. Human beings sneeze. They become ill, and ooze mucus, and their throats become sore, or their innards rebel and their bowels become loose. Then they lay about for days on end and wait for the symptoms to leave. _This_ ," Ardyn pointed to his nose, still wrinkled up, as if holding back another sneeze, "is normal--- nothing to be concerned with."

 

Izdubar frowned at the exaggerated, but accurate, account of sickness. An account of illness from a person who had never been sick a day in his life, and only knew of coughs and sneezes from observation. The spray of air from Ardyn's mouth was startling in its newness.

 

"Normal for others, indeed. Yet not for you."

 

"And why not? I am… a human being, as I said. I can… I can become ill if my luck is bad and I've rolled about in enough strange flora." Ardyn spoke in huffs of controlled, but congested, breathing, tugging Izdubar's cloak back over his body and pulling his legs against his chest to become but a bundle of black and silver against Izdubar again.

 

Another sneeze, this time, more suppressed, as if released in the chest instead of out in the open.

 

"… your humanity is not in question, Highness," Izdubar started, trying to choose his words carefully, "But even you must see the urgency in this. You are Eos' Healer-- you have never been ill, yet here you are barely able to breathe without a sniffle. Be it as it may for this to be a commonality to the general public, but you are, in this case, different."

 

"No. I am not." Ardyn stubbornly stuck to this, but with yet another sneeze, Izdubar heard the crack in the armor. "… This is proof."

 

" _Proof_? Ardyn, all I see is a draining nose and a man acting the child once more in some grand overarching desire to feel…" Iz halted himself in a soft gasp, finding himself coming full circle to the gravity of this situation, and the potential harm his finished words would have caused.

 

That was exactly it. The villager and his offering of the lute, Ardyn's pedestal in the eyes of the public as something otherworldly, and this simple sensation of weakness that the prince had never experienced. Ardyn often found his mind circling into itself, pondering on things as simple as how a drop of water could stay so perfectly a circle on a blade of grass, or things as complex as the spread and persistence of the Scourge and how to stop it forever. This situation was no different a paradox.

 

The young man suddenly stood up, probably bothered by what he'd said with Izdubar having not stopped his insensitive remark soon enough.  In that moment, with darkness having claimed the forest save for the flickering light of the campfire, Ardyn looked even less human, but something more akin to a spectre, or a creature beyond this realm under his cloak with nothing but a pale face shielded from true view. Something about to pass judgment upon him.

 

"…Izzy. I must thank you."

 

The young man's whisper broke him from his enchanted stupor. "For what, Ardyn?"

 

"Treating me as you always have. Never wavering. Never… changing since I have known you.  You look at me and simply see someone… not… anything more than what I can offer."

 

"I can not think to act any other way," Izdubar whispered, yet his mind had betrayed such sentiments only a few moments ago when Ardyn looked every bit surreal.

 

"As much as I ask from you, I must ask for yet more."

 

"Speak it then."

 

Izdubar watched as the cloak was pushed, and allowed to drape from Ardyn's body before sliding off, pooling around him like water in midnight. As he spoke, he tugged at ties and string, his body peeking underneath his garments.

 

"Remember our first night together?"

 

"Yes," rasped Izdubar, feeling his mouth dry as Ardyn's shoulder came to view, taking in the reds of the fire and making his skin seem more pink.

 

"The first sign that, perhaps, I may not be as I thought I was. Just an extremely talented healer that could purge this darkness that has plagued mankind since Ifrit waged war upon his fellow brothers and sisters."

 

His tunic dropped, joining the cloak. Ardyn tugged at the strings that held his leggings in place. Izdubar's hands twitched, resisting the urge to reach out and do it for him. Then, he resisted no longer and pulled Ardyn closer, surprising, yet delighting, the young man above him.

 

He unraveled the strings, and continued to listen, Ardyn's voice changing in octave with his Shield's hands upon him.

 

"You said my eyes changed color to that of a blazing sun or a fire's core… and a black ooze seeped from my ear, staining my hair. It occurred after we left the city south of here some years ago."

 

"Yes. It was quite the moment."

 

"It was _the_ moment, my dear Izzy…" Ardyn whispered, voice suddenly devoid of emotion. It hurt Izdubar deeply to feel nothing from the man before him. This young man, who smirked with the sharpest wit, smiled with the warmest intentions, schemed with the brightest ideas, and cared with a passion beyond this world. Yet that moment, Izdubar felt like he was touching a husk unaware of himself. Or wishing he was a husk to fly away from a body that could not make up its mind whether it was ethereal or moral.

 

"Ardyn…"

 

"The moment where I knew something was amiss. That the future is not as certain as I previously believed. That something is meant to befall me, Izzy, and I haven't a clue on how to rectify, or even prepare, for whatever omen it is. But, I feel, as long as you are by me, I, at least, have one ally, one constant in my life, that I can rely on."

 

"Do not speak as if you do not have many friends and associates back at the Capitol."

 

"Do I?"

 

The leggings came loss, and Izdubar pulled the fabric down and off solid, lean thighs to let drop with the rest of the pile at Ardyn's ankles. Then, unthinking, leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the newly exposed skin. Reverent in the lightness, but instinctual in his desire to make Ardyn feel less disassociated.

 

"I am here for you always, Highness…"

 

"I know. I did not bring up that night to relive my sudden horrific state. It was how you treated it. You merely wiped away the slime, and kissed over my eyes, and continued to touch me. Continued to adore me with your lips and your tongue and your cock inside of me. You waited until after you made love to me to tell me, because, it seemed, you did not care."

 

"You are correct." Izdubar laid another kiss on the other thigh, and smiled against the skin in feeling it tremor. Ardyn's soft gasp also gave him more ease that the young man was calming down from his emotional numbness.

 

"You don't care… if I'm human, or if I'm something else. You don't care if I am gorgeously adorned in the most delectable of silks, or if I've come down with a cold for the first time, feeling every bit like a thing from a swamp. When I'm healing, or when I am weak, yo-a-aah!"

 

Hands suddenly moved through Izdubar's white hair as the man kissed ever closer to his twitching cock, tongue just shy of a nest of reddish brown hair.

 

"Indeed… you make me feel--"

 

"Ardyn?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"I have yet to hear that desire you spoke of before. And I much as I enjoy your rambling, I rather enjoy hearing your commands even more." Izdubar hummed, his breath ghosting over skin that was only growing more sensitive.

 

Ardyn smiled down to his Shield, and that lovely soul that Izdubar knew and loved came back to those warm honey eyes. "Izzy. Remove me from this world."

 

"Yes, sir."

 

Thighs settled down over armor as Ardyn straddled his Shield, leaning up to kiss a man who stood well past six and a half feet. He whined gently when naked hands cupped his ass, and he palmed around the grass where Izdubar sat for something.

 

"Izzy… where are your gauntlets?"

 

The man scoffed and took them from where he last placed them, strapping them back to his hands. His prince's affinity for the feeling of sharp metal upon his skin was a deviation that he happily indulged. Especially since it roused such sweet noises from the young man as his claws dragged along his skin and raised it red in its wake with little effort.

 

The young man bowed and curled his back and ass into the claws, pawing his Shield's pecs while pressing his head underneath the man's chin, where Iz rested his head in a crown of wispy hair.

 

"Even through metal and leather, you feel so wonderful."

 

Ardyn shuddered from Iz's flattery, knowing he spoke truth, that this was how he felt, because he knew his Shield did not waste words. The words warmed through the slight illness of his head and nose, through his core and pulled at his cock, bringing it erect and pressing eagerly into defined abs.

 

"I-izzy…"

 

"Go on, Highness… take what is yours."

 

Soft, plush arms holding no true muscle, wrapped about Izdubar's shoulders, and like the slowest of crescendos, Ardyn started to rut into his Shield's body as Izdubar fondled and gripped and pawed at the Healer's soft body. The contrast of the heat and pressure between their bodies clashed delightfully with the threatening pull of skin brought forth by Izdubar's armor.

 

The man felt the build of sticky release against his body, and his prince's hips jerk faster and less evenly. He leaned his head down, and kissed against Ardyn's ear, holding him closer as he whispered: "Let go, my prince."

 

_And allow me to catch you._

 

Ardyn's blunt nails scratched viciously at Izdubar's back as he crashed his hips over and over into him. With his cock happily trapped between torsos, his body shook viciously as he reached his end. Izdubar wished he wasn't currently holding Ardyn, so he could dip naked fingers into the mess on his body to taste his prince.

 

Instead, he felt Ardyn nuzzle into his jaw, then nip close to his lips. He answered the plea and pulled their lips, their tongues, together while the other's soul sang separately from his sated body. For a moment, in this postcoital haze, Izdubar knew he had, not only given Ardyn the mental escape he needed, but protected him in a way he rarely did-- from himself.

 

The kissing slowed into soft facial nuzzling, and finally, the prince fell into an easy slumber, as he was prone to once both his mind and body was exhausted. Carefully, Izdubar carried his Prince to the tent, tucking him into a nest of furs and cottons to shield him from the elements. They would stay a while to make sure Ardyn's sneezing did not intensify.

 

He was sure by the end of that, Ardyn's sway into melancholy would be over, and he would be back to his tenacious self, ready to lend his hand to the next village on their travels. For now, Izdubar would keep him from whatever threatened to do him harm, even if it was the young man's own troubled heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you @Noctoleptic For being the best beta to ever Beta!


End file.
